Public Employee Press

Roberts: Albany cuts ‘‘unjust, unwise”

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

With a $13.7 billion budget gap looming, labor leaders from across the state protested the governor’s proposed spending cuts at joint hearings held Feb. 3 by key committees of the state Legislature.

“The cuts are unfair, unjust and unwise,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of poor and working New Yorkers, the governor should explore revenue-generating proposals that are fair and progressive.”

She testified on the budget for fiscal year 2009-10, which begins April 1, at a hearing called by Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Denny Farrell and Senate Finance Committee Chair Karl Kruger.

Union leaders have called Gov. David Paterson’s plan an attack on working families. The proposed budget slashes funds for health care, education and many social safety net services and threatens the jobs of public employees.

Roberts said Paterson’s plan to cut $700 million in Aid to Municipalities would take away “money that city taxpayers sent to Albany and should get back in services. The social fabric must be maintained and supported, not ripped to shreds.”

Roberts also called for state tax reform (see details). Currently an individual who earns more than $40,000 annually is taxed at the same rate as one who earns $200,000 or even millions a year. “We need to make the rich pay their fair share,” she said. Paterson has been reluctant to raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest 5 percent, who are the only New Yorkers to realize any income growth in the last seven years, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute.

She called for the governor to use the state’s $1 billion Rainy Day fund to help close the budget gap, impose severe penalties on businesses that don’t pay into the Unemployment Insurance Fund and create green jobs to increase revenues. Green jobs to improve energy efficiency of public buildings, housing, transportation and parks could put thousands of laid-off taxpayers back to work, Roberts said.

She asked the governor and Legislature to work responsibly together and use the anticipated federal stimulus funds “to secure our safety net services and alleviate some of the devastating cuts proposed in this budget. We are asking you to deliver fair and equitable tax policies that call on all New Yorkers to contribute fairly,” said Roberts. “It’s a matter of fairness to taxpayers, urgency for our communities and necessity for the efficacy of government services.”